Does anyone know what determines the submitted value of the String in the converters getAsObject method? The issue I am having is the value is not a unique value that I can look up in the managed bean's list. The example is the pick list displays a common name and an account name in the pick list. The account name is unique but the method is submitting the common name.

I wonder what answer do you expect to get. You created the component, you know which object properties are being referenced in it, one of those properties is being handed to the converter. Or am I misunderstanding the question?